Do you want to read your paranormal book reviews in the context of their series? Are you interested in the violence, sensuality, and humor levels of paranormal series? You’ve come to the right place. On this blog, each book is reviewed within the blog entry for its series. When a new book is published, the series entry is updated to include that book. Each series is rated on a 1-5 scale for violence, sensuality, and humor.

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AUTHOR SEARCH lists all authors reviewed on this Blog. CREATURE SEARCH groups all of the titles/series by their creature types. The RATINGS page explains the violence, sensuality, and humor (V-S-H) ratings codes found at the beginning of each Blog review and groups all titles/series by their Ratings. The PLOT TYPES page explains the SMR-UF-CH-HIS codes found at the beginning of each Blog review and groups all titles/series by their plot types. On this Blog, when you see a title, an author's name, or a word or phrase in pink type, this is a link. Just click on the pink to go to more information about that topic.

This post was revised and updated on 5/18/13 to include a review of the ninth book in the series: Only Lycans Need Apply.That review appears first, followed by an overview of the world-building and reviews of books 7 and 8: BOOK 9: Only Lycans Need Apply This book begins with three prologue-type chapters (although just the third one is actually entitled "Prologue"). That's a lot of expositional information to plow through before you get to the actual story. Reading the book as a stand-alone would be a challenge. I recommend that you at least read Must Love Lycans in order to get a handle on the huge cast of characters. Moira Jameson is a rich and grouchy archaeologist who has searched for many years for a special Egyptian pyramid. When she and her goth-girl intern, Dove, discover that the pyramid houses two powerful, long-dormant vampires, their lives—and Moria's heart—are put in jeopardy. When the soulless vampire, Karn, sends his minions to invade Moira's camp, she is rescued by Drake, one of the three royal lycan brothers we met in earlier books. From the beginning, Drake and Moira are attracted to one another, so we know that they will eventually get their HEA—and they do (no big surprise there). The action part of the plot centers around Karn's efforts to capture Moira. He knows something about her genetic history that has been kept secret from her all her life, and that secret is very valuable to him. Moira has been treated for mental illness even since she witnessed her mother's murder (when Moira was just 5 years old). She has frequent nightmares and attacks of unexplained aggression and must be under constant medication. The primary story line follows Moira and Drake as they enter the mysterious pyramid (which appears suddenly in the middle of Broken Heart) to awaken the vampire pair who have been secluded there for centuries. Drake doesn't do much more than hover lovingly around Moira, offering sex and support—whichever she happens to need at the time. This is really Moira's story, as she learns the facts about her parents and comes into her heritage (which, as you probably suspect) isn't entirely human. This isn't my favorite BROKEN HEART book, although once the story gets going, the action is compelling. This book makes its appearance so long after the previous one that it's hard to reach back in memory to make sense of many of the scenes, which include flashbacks to scenes from much earlier books. The love story is O.K., but the strongest element in the story is Moira, with her irascible personality that she uses to hide her fears for her own sanity.

WORLD-BUILDING Set in the tiny town of Broken Heart (the town with the highest rate of divorce and the highest percentage of single parents in Oklahoma), the action begins in I'm the Vampire, That's Why when a diseased vampire-lycan hybrid escapes from custody and bites and kills eleven of the human townspeople. To save their lives, members of the Consortium (a vampiric organization that facilitates relations between humans and supernaturals) bring the eleven back as vampires, each with his or her own special talent. Eventually, Broken Heart becomes a kind of paranormal sanctuary, promising safety for all types of supernaturals.

Each book tells one newbie's story, focusing on the soul-mate experience, but including the townspeoples' battles with a variety of human and supernatural villains: evil vamps, fierce lycans, scary dragons, dangerous demons, and military para-terrorists who are members of the Ethics and Technology Assessment Commission (ETAC). ETAC tries to capture supernaturals for purposes of experimentation. If they can't capture, though, they go for the kill—a really evil group.

Bardsley knows how to tell a romantic story. Her BROKEN HEART world is well thought out, with multiple glossaries and a brief genealogy section included in many of the later books. The dialogue is very humorous, with lots of sarcastic sniping among the characters. I recommend that you begin reading at the beginning of the series in order to keep up with the characters and events.

Because Your Vampire Said So won the2008 RT Book ReviewsAward for Vampire Romance. Over My Dead Body won Honorable Mention in the 2009 P.E.A.R.L. Awards for Vampire Romance (Paranormal Excellence Award for Romantic Literature). Bardsley also writes the paranormal romance series, WIZARDS OF NEVERMORE, which is set in the dragon-protected town of Nevermore, Texas. Click HERE to read my review of that series.

BOOK 7: Cross Your Heart In most of the BROKEN HEART books, villains are usually outsiders who attack the town for various reasons (i.e., power, vengeance, greed), but in Cross Your Heart, danger comes from evil forces that have developed within the town itself, dating back to horrible murders involving the the town's founding fathers. In this book, which takes place about five years after book 1, the protagonists are Elizabeth Bretton (wealthy vampire heiress) and Tezozomoc ("Tez") Jones (sexy were-jaguar), who meet when he rescues her from an attack in the woods. We learn more about the history of the town of Broken Heart in this book, and not much of it is good. Just to complicate things, the plot includes a jealous were female who wants Tez for herself and a ghost that wants Elizabeth dead.

BOOK 8: Must Love LycansBook 8 takes place about eight years after book 1. The heroine is Kelsey Morningstone, an empathic psychotherapist with a tragic past that involves her evil mommy-dearest and a psychotic killer. Kelsey's hero is Damian, the self-banished royal prince of the lycans. As the story opens, Damian has just been rescued from an ETAC laboratory by Jarred Dante, the head of the Dante Clinic, where Kelsey works as a therapist. Even though he has temporary amnesia, Damian immediately recognizes Kelsey as his one true mate, and he marks her in that inevitable werewolf way early on in the story. The plot involves the unanticipated side effects of Damian's marking on Kelsey, the revision and fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, and Kelsey's hallucinatory dreams about a goddess and her lycan god. Along the way, we get a large dose of lycan mythology. Kelsey uses her smart and sassy approach to life as a means of pulling Damian out of his dark, guilt-ridden, hermitic life. The couple has lots of chemistry, both in and out of the bedroom, and their romance is fun to follow. Each one is dealing with two separate issues with roots in the past. Kelsey is still recovering emotionally from her horrific kidnapping by one of her patients, a serial killer. In the meantime, Kelsey's mother has written a best-selling book full of lies about Kelsey. Damian is overcome with guilt because he believes that he failed to protect his wife and other family members, who were attacked and killed decades ago. In addition, his deep hatred for his goddess mother (who apparently abandoned him and his brothers 100 years ago) is eating him alive. So...we have lots of angst, plenty of sex, and a mystical prophecy plot. What more can you ask for in a paranormal romance? Click HERE to read an excerpt.

Reviews of Fang-tastic Fiction:

Fang-tastic Fiction...allows readers to find the latest supernatural characters and paranormal fiction. The best part is that Mathews has a blog to support her book with lots of updates and interesting features like the creature search and the rating system.--University of North Texas at Dallas,Library Blog

"Paranormal lovers and urban fantasy fans, here's a special Halloween treat for you...with humor and a great love for the genre, Mathews focuses on 'the best of the best' in modern supernatural fiction series, like Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake."--RT Book Reviews(October, 2010)

"Fang-tastic Fiction is a must-have for everyone: die-hard fans of the genre, beginners, and parents wondering what sort of books their teens are devouring. It's an invaluable resource (and not just because I'm in it!)."--MaryJanice Davidson, New York Times best-selling author of Undead and Unfinished

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About Me

After growing up as the high school principal's daughter (an adolescent's nightmare!), I (inexplicably) pursued a career in public education as a teacher, program coordinator, and curriculum/assessment designer. Currently, I have the best job of my life--behind the reference desk at my local branch library.

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FINDING A SERIES OR AN AUTHOR ON THIS BLOG

Only the most recent posts pop up on the HOME page. For older posts, go to the AUTHORSEARCH at the top of the HOME page. If you want to read about a specific supernatural creature, go to the CREATURESEARCH, also at the top of the HOME page.